What is the theory of the Stanford Prison Experiment?
The Stanford Prison Experiment is one of psychology's most notorious, and disturbingly telling, explorations of the relationship between self-identity and social role. Conducted at Stanford University in California in 1971, and funded by the U.S Office of Naval Research, the experiment involved the participants' complete immersion into the ...
What was wrong with the Stanford Prison Experiment?
“The (Stanford Prison Experiment) was never considered to be scientific. It’s typically presented in classrooms as a demonstration, not an experiment, and as a notorious case of ethical malfeasance.” The serious fraud seems to have occurred between Zimbardo and a complicit audience in the media, policy makers, and general public.
What actually happened in the Stanford Prison Experiment?
The Stanford prison experiment (SPE) was a role-play and simulation, held at Stanford University in the summer of 1971. It was intended to examine the effects of situational variables on participants' reactions and behaviors, in a two-week simulation of a prison environment.
What we can learn from the Stanford Prison 'Experiment'?
The biggest and most probably, the only lesson learnt from The Stanford Prison Experiment, as mentioned by Phillip Zimbardo himself in one of the interviews is “That human behavior is more influenced by things outside of us, than inside. The situation is the external environment here.”
What was the original hypothesis in the Stanford prison study quizlet?
It was hypothesised that those participants who were assigned the role of a guard would behave in a way that was consistent to the role and those who were assigned as a prisoner would behave in that role.
What is the main point of the Stanford Prison Experiment quizlet?
What was the aim of Zimbardo's 'Stanford Prison Experiment? ' To investigate how readily people would conform to the roles of guard and prisoner in a role-playing exercise that simulated prison life.
What is the just world hypothesis quizlet?
The just world hypothesis is the belief that people get what they deserve in life and deserve what they get. This belief is a potential cause of the fundamental attribution error—the tendency to overestimate dispositional causes of an event and to underestimate situational causes.
How long did the Stanford experiment last?
Zimbardo had intended that the experiment should run for a fortnight, but on the sixth day it was terminated, due to the emotional breakdowns of pr...
Was the Stanford Prison Experiment ethical?
The study has received many ethical criticisms, including lack of fully informed consent by participants as Zimbardo himself did not know what woul...
What did the Stanford Prison Experiment show?
Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment revealed how people will readily conform to the social roles they are expected to play, especially if the rol...
Why did Zimbardo stop the experiment?
The guards may have been so sadistic because they did not feel what happened was down to them personally – it was a group norm. The also may have l...
What was the Stanford Prison Experiment?
Known as the Stanford Prison Experiment, the study went on to become one of the best-known (and controversial) in psychology's history. 1. The study has long been a staple in textbooks, articles, ...
What did the researchers want to know about prison?
The researchers wanted to know how the participants would react when placed in a simulated prison environment. The researchers wondered if physically and psychologically healthy people who knew they were participating in an experiment would change their behavior in a prison-like setting. 2.
How many hours did the guards work in the mock prison?
The 24 volunteers were then randomly assigned to either the prisoner group or the guard group. Prisoners were to remain in the mock prison 24 hours a day during the study. Guards were assigned to work in three-man teams for eight-hour shifts. After each shift, guards were allowed to return to their homes until their next shift.
How many prisoners were in the prison cell?
Each cell held three prisoners and included three cots. Other rooms across from the cells were utilized for the jail guards and warden. One tiny space was designated as the solitary confinement room, and yet another small room served as the prison yard.
What were the negative emotions of the prisoners?
Five of the prisoners began to experience severe negative emotions, including crying and acute anxiety, and had to be released from the study early. Even the researchers themselves began to lose sight of the reality of the situation. Zimbardo, who acted as the prison warden, overlooked the abusive behavior of the jail guards ...
Who was Stanley Milgram's classmate?
Zimbardo was a former classmate of the psychologist Stanley Milgram. Milgram is best known for his famous obedience experiment . Zimbardo was interested in expanding upon Milgram's research. He wanted to further investigate the impact of situational variables on human behavior.
Where is the mock prison?
The researchers set up a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University's psychology building. They selected 24 undergraduate students to play the roles of both prisoners and guards.
How much did the Stanford experiment cost?
They all agreed to participate in a 7- to 14-day period and received $15 per day (roughly equivalent to $96 in 2020). The experiment was conducted in a 35-foot (10.5 m) section of a basement of Jordan Hall (Stanford's psychology building).
What is the Stanford marshmallow experiment?
Plaque at the location of the Stanford prison experiment. The Stanford prison experiment (SPE) was a social psychology experiment influenced by the Milgram experiment that attempted to investigate the psychological effects of perceived power, ...
What did Zimbardo say about the prison guards?
Although Zimbardo interpreted the experiment as having shown that the "prison guards" instinctively embraced sadistic and authoritarian behaviors, Zimbardo actually instructed the "guards" to exert psychological control over the "prisoners".
Why did Zimbardo design the experiment?
Zimbardo designed the experiment in order to induce disorientation, depersonalization, and deindividuation in the participants. The researchers held an orientation session for the guards the day before the experiment, during which guards were instructed not to harm the prisoners physically or withhold food or drink.
When was the Abu Ghraib prison publicized?
When acts of prisoner torture and abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were publicized in March 2004, Zimbardo himself, who paid close attention to the details of the story, was struck by the similarity with his own experiment. He was dismayed by official military and government representatives' shifting the blame for the torture and abuses in the Abu Ghraib American military prison onto "a few bad apples" rather than acknowledging the possibly systemic problems of a formally established military incarceration system.
What did Zimbardo's interpretation of the SPE show?
According to Zimbardo's interpretation of the SPE, it demonstrated that the simulated-prison situation, rather than individual personality traits, caused the participants' behavior.
How long did the prison guards work in the prison yard?
The prisoners were to stay in their cells and the yard all day and night until the end of the study. The guards worked in teams of three for eight-hour shifts.
How did the guards become more derisive towards the prisoners?
As the prisoners became more dependent, the guards became more derisive towards them. They held the prisoners in contempt and let the prisoners know it. As the guards’ contempt for them grew, the prisoners became more submissive. As the prisoners became more submissive, the guards became more aggressive and assertive.
What did Zimbardo do to study prison?
To study the roles people play in prison situations, Zimbardo converted a basement of the Stanford University psychology building into a mock prison. He advertised asking for volunteers to participate in a study of the psychological effects of prison life.
Why were Zimbardo and his colleagues interested in finding out whether the brutality reported among guards in answer
Zimbardo and his colleagues (1973) were interested in finding out whether the brutality reported among guards in American prisons was due to the sadistic personalities of the guards (i.e., dispositional) or had more to do with the prison environment (i.e., situational). For example, prisoner and guards may have personalities which make conflict ...
What did Zimbardo do to the prisoners?
Guards were instructed to do whatever they thought was necessary to maintain law and order in the prison and to command the respect of the prisoners. No physical violence was permitted. Zimbardo observed the behavior of the prisoners and guards (as a researcher), and also acted as a prison warden.
Why did the guards give prisoners a regular occasion?
More importantly, they provided a regular occasion for the guards to exercise control over the prisoners. The prisoners soon adopted prisoner-like behavior too. They talked about prison issues a great deal of the time. They ‘told tales’ on each other to the guards.
How did the guards retaliate against the prisoners?
The guards retaliated by using a fire extinguisher which shot a stream of skin-chilling carbon dioxide, and they forced the prisoners away from the doors. Next, the guards broke into each cell, stripped the prisoners naked and took the beds out.
Why do prisoners behave in a hostile manner?
Alternatively, prisoners and guards may behave in a hostile manner due to the rigid power structure of the social environment in prisons.
Why was the Stanford Prison Experiment attacked?
The Stanford Prison Experiment immediately came under attack on methodological and ethical grounds. Zimbardo admitted that during the experiment he had sometimes felt more like a prison superintendent than a research psychologist.
How long did the Stanford Prison experiment last?
However, mistreatment of prisoners escalated so alarmingly that principal investigator Philip G. Zimbardo terminated the experiment after only six days. Stanford Prison Experiment. ...
What was the most conspicuous challenge to the Stanford findings?
The most conspicuous challenge to the Stanford findings came decades later in the form of the BBC Prison Study , a differently organized experiment documented in a British Broadcasting Corporation series called The Experiment (2002). The BBC’s mock prisoners turned out to be more assertive than Zimbardo’s.
How many prisoners were released in the first four days of the experiment?
Within the first four days, three prisoners had become so traumatized that they were released. Over the course of the experiment, some of the guards became cruel and tyrannical, while a number of the prisoners became depressed and disoriented.
How many people responded to the Prison Life advertisement?
More than 70 young men responded to an advertisement about a “psychological study of prison life,” and experimenters selected 24 applicants who were judged to be physically and mentally healthy. The paid subjects—they received $15 a day—were divided randomly into equal numbers of guards and prisoners.
What Was the Study About?
The Stanford Prison Experiment was an attempt to show how the social environment affects our behavior. Under normal circumstances, most people will not engage in a criminal act, even if they are motivated, and the opportunity presents itself. However, most people will act in a crime if an authority figure tells them.
What Happened?
Over time, the guards became more and more abusive toward prisoners. Zimbardo himself had to stop several planned “experiments” because things were getting out of hand. One guard even went so far as to strip naked and demand that one of the prisoners lick his boots.
Major Players
The vast majority of participants were ordinary college students who had replied to a flyer asking, “Do you want to be part of an exciting new research project?” Zimbardo advertised for people between the ages of 20 and 50, claiming that they would have little difficulty being selected.
Results and Conclusion
One of the most disturbing results was how quickly this psychological torture began and ended. The first prisoner rebellion took place on day two. Still, it wasn’t until after five days that one prisoner became incredibly hysterical and had to be released from the experiment early.
The Movie Vs. the Actual Experiment
While there are many similarities between the Movie and the actual experiment, there are also some differences. The most obvious one is that only half of the prisoner participants completely broke down by the end of the study in real life.
What is the Stanford Prison Experiment?
The Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) is a highly influential and controversial study run by Philip Zimbardo and his colleagues at Stanford University in 1971. The researchers originally set out to support the notion that situational forces are just as powerful and perhaps more powerful than dispositional forces in influencing prison behavior. In addition to providing support for their hypothesis, the study was heavily covered in the mainstream media and had far-reaching ethical implications. Regardless, and perhaps because of its controversial nature, the SPE remains one of the most well-known experiments in social psychology.
Why were prisoners arrested at Stanford?
Prisoners were unexpectedly “arrested” at their houses by the local police department, were taken to the police station to be charged their “crime” and brought to the prison at Stanford. Prisoners were assigned a number and wore only a smock, which was designed to deindividuate the prisoners.
How did Zimbardo and colleagues create a mock prison?
To test their hypothesis, Zimbardo and colleagues created a realistic mock prison in the basement of Stanford University. The participants included 21 male college students, specifically chosen for their normal responses on a battery of background questionnaires. The participants were randomly assigned to be either a guard or a prisoner, with an undergraduate research assistant acting as warden and Zimbardo himself taking on the role of superintendent. The prisoners stayed in the prison 24 hours per day, while the guards worked 8-hour shifts. Aside from a restriction on physical violence, guards were given great latitude in how they could deal with prisoners, including the rules they could establish and punishments they could dole out.
What is the SPE in prison?
Indeed, the SPE is often cited as evidence for the strong role of the situation over individuals in ways in which they often do not predict. The researchers also compared their work to Stanley Milgram’s research on obedience in that both provide support for the notion that given an extreme situation, good people can be coerced into doing evil things. Despite these exciting findings, the SPE has been criticized from both a methodological and ethical standpoint.
Why was the SPE created?
The SPE was conceived as a reaction to the popular belief that the violent and oppressive nature of U.S. prisons and subsequent reports of humanitarian violations were due to the unique personality characteristics of the prisoners and guards.
What was Zimbardo's role in the Stanford Prison?
The ethical implications of the study, as well as Zimbardo’s dual role as investigator and superintendent of the Stanford prison were highly criticized at the time. Zimbardo himself admitted that his own acceptance of the prison situation and his desire to run a good prison clouded his judgment, suggesting that even he had internalized his role in ...
How many hours did the guards work in the prison?
The prisoners stayed in the prison 24 hours per day, while the guards worked 8-hour shifts. Aside from a restriction on physical violence, guards were given great latitude in how they could deal with prisoners, including the rules they could establish and punishments they could dole out.
What is the Stanford Prison Experiment?
The Stanford Prison Experiment is one of the few psychological studies that are focused on the effects of being either a prison guard or a prisoner.
What did the prison guards do in the experiment?
The team of prison guards was also instructed to call the prisoners with their assigned numbers and not by their names. Unlike other psychological studies, this experiment made the group of prisoners really go through the procedure of a normal arrest, which included the taking of mug shots as well as fingerprinting.
What did Zimbardo and his team do before the experiment began?
Before the experiment began, Zimbardo and his team held an orientation for the group of prison guards regarding the guidelines that they had to follow: about inducing feelings of boredom, fear to a certain extent, the lack of privacy, and powerlessness to the team of prisoners.
Why did the prison guards show feelings of sadism?
According to the group of prisoners, the prison guards seemed to eventually display genuine feelings of sadism because of the power they held over the prisoners. On the other hand, the prisoners showed feelings of rebellion, and eventually gave in to the prison guards’ orders.
Who was the first person to test the hypothesis that prisoners and prison guards have inherent traits that cause abusive behavior in prison
The proponent of this psychology research, Philip Zimbardo, along with his team of researchers, wanted to test the hypothesis that prisoners and prison guards have inherent traits that cause abusive behavior in prison. Zimbardo designed the experiment in such a way that the participants would feel disoriented, depersonalized, and deindividualized while in participating in the study.
Where was the Zimbardo experiment?
The Experiment. The study was done in the basement of Stanford University’s building of psychology – the Jordan Hall . Zimbardo himself participated and took on the role of the superintendent, while a research assistant of his assumed the role of the warden.
Why did prison guards wear batons?
For this psychology research, the group of prison guards was given batons to help establish their status, and clothed them in prison guard uniform as well. As for the group of prisoners, they wore ill-fitting smocks as well as stocking caps, and wore a chain in one of their ankles.
What Was The Experiment About?
Who Were The Participants?
- The researchers set up a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University's psychology building. They selected 24 undergraduate students to play the roles of both prisoners and guards. The participants were chosen from a larger group of 70 volunteers because they had no criminal background, lacked psychological issues, and had no significant medical conditions. The volunt…
The Setting and Procedures
- The simulated prison included three six-by-nine-foot prison cells. Each cell held three prisoners and included three cots. Other rooms across from the cells were utilized for the jail guards and warden. One tiny space was designated as the solitary confinement room, and yet another small room served as the prison yard. The 24 volunteers were then randomly assigned to either the pri…
Results
- While the Stanford Prison Experiment was originally slated to last 14 days, it had to be stopped after just six due to what was happening to the student participants.3The guards became abusive, and the prisoners began to show signs of extreme stress and anxiety. Some of these included: 1. While the prisoners and guards were allowed to interact in a...
Impact
- The experiment became famous and was widely cited in textbooks and other publications. According to Zimbardo and his colleagues, the Stanford Prison Experiment demonstrated the powerful role that the situation can play in human behavior.4 Because the guards were placed in a position of power, they began to behave in ways they would not usually act in their everyday live…
Criticisms of The Stanford Prison Experiment
- In the years since the experiment was conducted, there have been a number of critiques of the study. Some of these include:
A Word from Verywell
- The Stanford Prison Experiment is well known both in and out of the field of psychology. While the study has long been criticized for many reasons, more recent criticisms of the study's procedures shine a brighter light on the experiment's scientific shortcomings.
Overview
The Stanford prison experiment (SPE) was designed to examine the effects of situational variables on participants' reactions and behaviors in a two-week simulation of a prison environment. Stanford University psychology professor Philip Zimbardo led the research team who ran the study in the summer of 1971.
Participants were recruited from the local community with an ad in the newsp…
Funding and methodology
The official website of the SPE describes the experiment goal as follows:
We wanted to see what the psychological effects were of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. To do this, we decided to set up a simulated prison and then carefully note the effects of this institution on the behavior of all those within its walls.
A 1997 article from the Stanford News Service described the experiment goal in a more detailed …
Publishing
Prior to publishing in American Psychologist and other peer-reviewed journals, the researchers reported the findings in Naval Research Reviews, International Journal of Criminology and Penalogy (IJCP), and the New York Times Magazine. David Amodio, psychology instructor at both at New York University and the University of Amsterdam, dismissed Zimbardo's study, stating that releasing the article to an "obscure journal" demonstrated that Zimbardo was unable to convinc…
Preparation
After receiving approval from the university to conduct the experiment, study participants were recruited using an ad in the "help wanted" section of the Palo Alto Times and The Stanford Daily newspapers in August 1971:
Male college students needed for psychological study of prison life. $15 per day for 1–2 weeks, beginning Aug. 14. For further information and applications, co…
Events
The small mock prison cells were set up, and the participants who had been assigned a guard role attended an orientation where they were briefed and given uniforms.
The participants who had been assigned a prisoner role were mock-arrested by the local Palo Alto police at their homes or assigned sites. The participants wer…
Interpretation and reproducibility of results
According to Zimbardo's interpretation of the SPE, it demonstrated that the simulated-prison situation, rather than individual personality traits, caused the participants' behavior. Using this situational attribution, the results are compatible with those of the Milgram experiment, where participants complied with orders to administer seemingly dangerous and potentially lethal electric shocks to a shill.
Legacy
One positive result of the study is that it has altered the way US prisons are run. For example, juveniles accused of federal crimes are no longer housed before trial with adult prisoners, due to the risk of violence against them.
Zimbardo submitted a statement to the 1971 US House Committee on the Judiciary about the experiment's findings.
Ethical concerns
Some of the guards' behavior allegedly led to dangerous and psychologically damaging situations. Ethical concerns surrounding the experiment often draw comparisons to the Milgram experiment, conducted ten years earlier in 1961 at Yale University, where Stanley Milgram studied obedience to authority. With the treatment that the guards were giving to the prisoners, the guards would become so deeply absorbed into their role as a guard that they would emotionally, physically an…